


One Abydonian Year

by sg_wonderland



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-29
Updated: 2012-11-29
Packaged: 2017-11-19 20:44:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/577456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sg_wonderland/pseuds/sg_wonderland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The year between the original movie and Children of the Gods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Abydonian Year

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not even going to try to do the ancient Egyptian, just pretend there’s a translator in your head, please.

Daniel stood blinking as the wormhole dissipated. “Daniel.” He turned to...he wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to that word…his wife. “We go home now?”

“Yes,” he smiled, taking her hand. “We go home now.”

 

*

Jack drove to his house in the rapidly darkening autumn evening. Suddenly, what had seemed so logical, so…right on Abydos, seemed now so wrong. What the hell had they been thinking, had any of them been thinking? Leaving a kid alone on an alien planet? When had he lost his mind? 

He automatically made the turns without realizing where he was until he was in the drive. And that, he realized, should have answered his question. He had pretty much lost any vestige of sanity when he walked out of a hospital emergency room and opened the door onto a nightmare. That was, he theorized as he entered the dark, empty house, as good an excuse as any for why he had just jeopardized his career, what was left of it, and that of two good men. He could plead insanity if his lie was ever revealed.

Yeah, that’ll play, he thought as he cracked open the bottle of whiskey. The first sip was at his lips when the knock sounded at the door. “Who the hell?” He wondered as he reluctantly set the bottle down and loped up the steps.

“Hey, Colonel.” Kawalsky was leaning on the doorframe. Ferretti was standing behind him, clearly uncomfortable.

“Gentlemen.” Jack should have known they’d make a beeline for him as soon as they left base. He stepped back and pointed toward the living room while he diverted to the dining room and fetched three glasses.

“Colonel.”

“Kawalsky, I’m fairly certain my illustrious career is officially over, so that is no longer necessary.”

“Okay, Jack.” It sounded odd, even to him. “Did we do the right thing?”

“You mean by leaving Jackson where he was? He had a wife, a wife, in case you hadn’t noticed. I don’t know about you, but I’m not big on breaking up families. Beside, I read his file. Trust me when I say he had absolutely nothing to come back to.” Unless you counted being unemployed, disgraced, orphaned and impoverished.

“Jack.”

“Kawalsky, those were good people. Decent, plain, caring folks. Can you honestly say you think they won’t take care of Jackson?” He lit another cigarette.

“They worshipped him, sir.” Ferretti finally spoke.

“Well, he could use a little of that. And I can promise you, I won’t lose a minute’s sleep over him.” Jack lied smoothly. “Now, drink the damn whiskey.”

 

*

As soon as Daniel and Sha’re walked through the gates of the city, a great silence descended before everyone dropped to their knees. “Oh, God, stop doing that, please.” Daniel grabbed the closest person he could and urged them to their feet. “No more, understand me? No more bowing, no more worshipping.” Belatedly, he switched languages and repeated himself in ancient Egyptian. It was, he realized, going to be a very long time before these people believed they were free. Fortunately, it seemed as if they now had time in abundance. 

Tomorrow, he promised himself, he’d figure out what to do, how to get these people accustomed to living free. Because today, if he wasn’t very much mistaken, they were going to celebrate. With a shrug, he took a drink from the hollowed-out gourd pressed into his hands. He barely managed to swallow the liquid, blinking back the tears.

Okay, day after tomorrow, for sure.

 

*

When the official looking envelope came, Jack wasn’t even surprised. The Air Force was un-re-activating him; all it took was a few swipes of a pen and he was officially retired. He signed without regret, dropped them back in the mail and packed a suitcase before heading to heaven on earth. 

Minnesota had always grounded him, had always made him believe that there had to be a God out there somewhere. He simply refused to believe that air this crisp and clean, water this sparkling, nature this beautiful, could be a random freak of nature. God, he was convinced, made Minnesota and then threw in the rest of the world just to keep His hand in. 

He took his time driving up, stopping in Chicago to spend a few days with his parents, reconnect with his sisters and their families. He didn’t think he was imagining that his mother’s hug lasted a bit longer, that her oh-so-familiar brown eyes misted a bit more when he kissed her good-bye. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she fully expected to open her door one day to see two sympathetic faces in dress blues accompanied by the Air Force version of Father Mulcahy.

 

*

It was actually close to a week later that Daniel started thinking seriously about what he wanted to accomplish on Abydos. The first six days had been spent in a debauchery of drinking and eating and celebrating. Sha’re had dragged him into the circle the very first night and forced him to dance with her. He felt more self-conscious than he’d ever felt when defending any of his masters’ theses or even when delivering the speech from hell. 

Until he realized this was Sha’re’s way of saying to everyone else ‘this is my man’, staking her claim in public for all to see. So he pushed his embarrassment aside and allowed everyone to see the bride and groom dancing at the wedding reception.

Luckily for them, their honeymoon ‘cottage’ was a fairly large tent set a good distance from the village. He broached the subject of sex tentatively, cautiously. And was relieved when Sha’re agreed that they needed to get to know each other better before taking that next step.

He just thought it would take a little longer for them to get to know each other. But living together, sleeping together at night, platonically, walking hand in hand to the village every morning, they spent hours and hours talking. Sha’re was a very quick study and picked up English rapidly. Daniel realized that if she had been on Earth, educated from the standard age, she would have made an exceptional student.

He had been on Abydos nearly a month when it rained the first time. Childlike, the Abydonians ran out to dance in the rain. Daniel shrugged, thought ‘what the hell?’ and joined them. Within minutes everyone was soaked, laughing and dancing and hugging each other. When Daniel found himself hugging his own wife, her beautiful dark hair plastered to her head, her eyes joyous, he swallowed a lump in his throat that he couldn’t speak around for a few moments.

“Wife of mine?” He lifted her off the ground.

“Yes, husband of mine?” She let her hands slick the hair back from his face.

“Can we go home now?”

Her smile was bright and blinding. “Yes, husband, let us go home now.” They walked to their tent, hand in hand, in the pouring rain. And made love through the long afternoon, to the sound of the rain on the tent roof.

 

*

A month later, Jack reluctantly returned, toying with the idea of selling and relocating to Minnesota permanently. Deciding to give himself some time to think, he opened the door and stepped into a musty smelling house. First order of business was clearly opening all the windows and letting the crisp November air in. Within minutes the house was chilly but smelling quite a bit better.

“Colonel O’Neill?” He jumped when he realized someone had walked in the open front door without him even knowing it. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.” It was his next door neighbor, with a box in her arms.

“Here, let me take that.” Jack took the box from her, setting it on the floor. “I just wasn’t expecting anyone.”

Mrs. Laughlin smiled. “It’s fine. Your mail is in there. I threw out the newspapers, I didn’t think you wanted to look at old news. And there’s some cake in there, I thought you might like a bite of something to tide you over tonight.” She waved from the door. “If you need anything tonight, dear, just jump the fence and come on over.”

And maybe, just maybe, Jack thought as he had home-made chocolate cake and coffee in front of the fire, that Colorado just might have something to offer after all. 

 

*

“Husband?”

Daniel squinted up. “Yes, wife?”

“Skaara will be here shortly.” Daniel was still amazed at how accurately the Abydonians could tell time without the aid of clocks; as far as he knew, his watch was the only timepiece on the planet. And since the days here were 36 hours long, it wasn’t very useful. He’d quit wearing it ages ago.

He slowly rose from where he was weaving a blanket. He couldn’t remember seeing a loom since Egypt but this one worked rather well. These particular threads were twisted from camel hair, then colored by nuts and berries before being woven into blankets. The softer cloth of their clothing was made from flax. Clothing was something that most people took for granted but Daniel knew what it took to make clothing that started from flax plants grown along the riverbanks.

Daniel took turns with Sha’re weaving, cooking, all the chores traditionally thought of as woman’s work. He hoped that he was sending a message to the men and women both that by clinging to their old roles, they were living in a past that was no longer theirs.

“Go, wash your hands and face. I will finish this.” She shooed him into the part of the tent that was designated as the bathroom, but was little more than a couple of pseudo-curtains hiding a jug of water, a large bowl on a low table and a pot with a tight fitting lid. 

Daniel had insisted on emptying the chamber pot himself; this was something he didn’t think was strictly a woman’s job. If there was one thing he missed from Earth, he thought as he replaced the lid, toilet paper would rank fairly high on his list. He washed his face and hands, dampened his hair and changed into a clean robe, one more fitting for visiting.

Skaara was just entering when he emerged. “Brother, are you well?”

It never failed, no matter how many times a day someone saw him, they always enquired after his health. He initially thought it was their belief that he was fragile, but soon realized it was their not-too-subtle way of reminding him that he was unaccustomed to life here and that he needed to pay better attention to his own well-being.

“I am well, brother. Sha’re, don’t wait up, I may be late.” One of Skaara’s friends was getting married tomorrow and they were doing the Abydonian version of chivaree, only their version was perpetrated on the groom the night before and not the honeymooning couple.

“Brother, please take care of my husband.” Sha’re warned with a mock-angry glare.

“Yes, my sister, I will take great care with him. It took you long enough to catch a husband, I have no desire to wait for you to catch another.”

“Go, bothersome child.” Sha’re shooed him out of the tent. “Take care, my husband.”

Daniel slid his arms around her waist. “I could stay here instead.”

“And have the men laugh at you for being…” She struggled for the word.

“Henpecked.” Daniel offered.

“Yes, I like that word. Henpecked.” She kissed him swiftly. “Go.”

 

*

It wasn’t until the next morning that Jack rooted through the mail and found the envelope from the lawyer’s office. Reminding himself that he knew this was coming didn’t stop his heart from icing over when he opened the envelope and saw the words in large black letters.

Petition for the Dissolution of Marriage

Dissolution. Yes, that was a pretty good word, he thought absently. Because there was no solution to this problem.

 

*

Tru was inconsolable the day he tripped Daniel during a spirited tag game and his glasses had flown off, knocking one of the arms neatly off the frames. Daniel assured him it was fixable; thank goodness Jack had insisted on him keeping the med-kit. 

With that and the goods they had recovered once a subsequent sandstorm revealed the camp hidden by their first storm, planet-side, they had basic medical care. He had some pain reliever, adhesive tape which he used sparingly on his glasses. Ever after, he was much more careful with them, making sure he replaced them in the hard-side case every night instead of just carelessly leaving them on whatever flat surface he could find. Spare glasses were added to the mental wish-list.

 

*

Jack flew to Chicago for Christmas. His sisters and their families came over on Christmas Eve and it was, to his knowledge, the first time they had all been together since Charlie’s funeral. It was hard to look at Julia’s daughter, Veronica, who was less than three weeks younger than Charlie. Sarah and Julia had had a running bet on which one would deliver first.

Proving that she was a mind-reader, his mother snaked her arms around him from behind as he stood on the back porch. “Don’t be sad, Jack. We’re here together. Just be happy for that.”

He patted the clenched fists that rested on his stomach. “I’m trying, Mom.” It was the best he could do.

 

*

 

Daniel was waging an uphill battle convincing the villagers that raiding what Ra had left behind in the pyramid wasn’t blasphemous. They hadn’t been back to the pyramid since they had buried the gate. He had talked until he was blue in the face until suddenly Kasuf stood up, waving his hands to hush the mumbling and grumbling.

“If my good son says that it should be done, then we should do it. Did he not give his life to save us? I am ashamed that we think so little of his sacrifice. If you will not go, then Daniel and I will go by ourselves.”

Sha’re stood. “I will go too.”

“As will I.” Skaara jumped up.

Before it was over, Daniel had to pick a team to go with them. They at first reluctantly then happily sorted through what had been left behind. All the clothing they would take and the eating utensils. With a shiver, Daniel added the abandoned weapons; he would have to teach the boys how to use them safely, to keep them stashed so that the children could not hurt themselves. He thought briefly of Jack.

 

*

Retirement sucked. Really, really sucked. It wasn’t so bad during the spring and summer when he could get out and hike and camp and fish. It was the bitter cold of a Colorado winter that gave him the fidgets. The outdoor thermometer hadn’t inched above 19 degrees all day. Idly, he wondered what the current temperature was on Abydos.

 

*

There were no real seasons on Abydos. Winter just meant that Daniel was glad for a heavier robe in the day, more covers at night. According to the rough calendar he’d calculated, he had been on Abydos for fourteen weeks. At first, Sha’re was frightened when she’d seen him marking off the days, convinced he was working out when he could go home. It had taken some convincing to make her see he was home.

 

*

Jack nodded in satisfaction as he stood up, knees creaking. Once the grout dried and was cleaned up, his newly-refurbished master bath would be ready to use. He was glad he’d decided to just gut the whole thing and start over. Yeah, it had taken him a month of inconvenience, a month of using the other bathroom. But it had been well worth the time and when he moved to Minnesota, it would increase the value of the house.

 

*

She stood facing him, her hands planted stubbornly on her hips. “It is not for men to be there. It is not right.”

“You mean her husband isn’t even going to be there? To see his own baby born?” Daniel shook his head. “I’d want to be there.”

“It is no place for a man.” She argued.

“Well, he was there when the baby was conceived, why shouldn’t he be there when it’s born?”

“Daniel!” She was aghast. “It is not to be joked about.”

He rose and took her rigid body in his arms. “You’re right, I’m sorry, it’s not something to be joked about.” His hands crept down to her stomach. “But I promise you that if we ever have a baby, I’m going to be right there. Might even deliver him myself.”

“They will all think you are crazy.” She smiled despite her anger.

“My darling, they already think that.”

 

*

Spring. 

Thank God, Jack thought, as he locked the truck. The bathroom upgrade had gone so well, he was seriously thinking of gutting the kitchen next, hence the trip to the big hardware store. Yeah, he knew they called them home stores now, but he still thought of them as hardware stores.

“Hey, Colonel.” He instinctively turned when he heard the shout.

“Kawalsky, good to see you.” Jack took the hand he extended. “So what’s going on?”

“Ah, you know, same old, same old.”

“Still up on the mountain?” Jack leaned against the tailgate of his truck.

“Yeah, but we’re getting another commander so I’m asking for a transfer. West was a pain in the ass, but at least I knew where I stood, you know?”

“So where’re you bucking for?”

“Peterson is far enough for me. I like Colorado.”

“After the winter we just had, you’ve got to be nuts.”

Kawalsky snorted. “This from a Minnesota boy? Getting soft in your retirement, Jack?”

“I must be. Listen, give me a call sometime. We’ll have a beer.” Jack dug a scrap of paper out of his coat pocket, scribbled on it and handed it to Kawalsky.

“I’ll do that, Jack.”

 

*

Daniel held a sobbing Sha’re as they watched the sand cover Nadya. He knew time could never erase the sight of that tightly bound body, clutching an obscenely tiny bundle in her arms.

“Why, Daniel, why?”

“I do not know, Sha’re.” He could spout all kinds of meaningless platitudes. These things happen, it was God’s will, at least they have each other. After all, he knew them by heart, didn’t he?

 

*

Jack squinted as he rolled over to answer the phone. “Yeah?”

“Jack? Sorry to call so early, but I need a pilot. They found a heart for David.”

Jack bolted upright. “That’s great, Squid!” His joy was tinged with sadness, because he knew if they had found little David a heart, it meant that somewhere there was a child who no longer needed his. “Where?”

“Cincinnati. Porter’s already doing pre-flight.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

It was actually thirteen minutes when Jack roared up to the Angel’s Flight hangar.

 

*

Daniel thought long and hard before he approached Kasuf. But he had argued this with himself and he knew it was for the best.

“You think we should unbury the Stargate?” They walked through the late spring sunshine, the baking heat of the summer a promise away.

“Yes, good father, I do. There are things we need, things we could trade for.”

Kasuf ‘s eyes stared at him steadily. “This is about Nadya, yes?”

“We could have saved her, they could have saved her.”

“You do not know this.”

“I know she would have at least had a chance! She and the baby might have lived if we had sent her through the stargate, if we’d gotten a doctor here. Please, Kasuf, you know that I’m right. If it had been Sha’re...”

Kasuf’s head jerked toward him. “Are you saying..?”

“No, I am not. Sha’re is not with child. But if she were, wouldn’t you move heaven and earth to see that she doesn’t end up like Nadya? And what about Kreena and Ana? They both deserve to have healthy babies, to live to see those babies grow up.”

“It is too dangerous.”

“We can’t go anywhere but Earth. How dangerous can that be?”

“You have thought about this, planned this?”

“Yes, good father, I’m sorry, but I have. I think we have to do this.”

“Will you give me time to think, good son? And then I will ask the village elders to hear you.” 

 

*

Jack was faintly guilty about the amount of money he’d spent on a kitchen that only he ever cooked in. But he liked good food and he’d found, over the past year, that he quite liked cooking. 

Besides, his parents were coming down for the fourth of July, the boys at Peterson always put on a hell of an air show and his dad had expressed an interest in seeing it live. His mother would love the new kitchen.

He realized he probably needed to do a few things in the guest room. Maybe a fresh coat of paint. And he’d been meaning to put a phone jack and a cable outlet in there for some time. Might as well do that now before his mother, the new queen of the laptop, got here.

 

*

“What does this room mean, Daniel?” Sha’re held the torch up.

“I’m not sure. But it has to mean something, right? All these symbols. Why wasn’t it in the pyramid? Why is it hidden here?”

“Do you think Ra built it?” Skaara reverently touched one of the walls.

“I don’t think Ra even knew it was here. I mean he didn’t know about the cave, either. These appear to be very, very old. I don’t think anyone has even stood in this room for a very long time, maybe centuries.”

Sha’re smiled at her husband’s rapt expression. “So you will solve this puzzle, too, Daniel. As you did before.”

“I appreciate your faith in me, but this may be beyond even me.”

“And it will keep you out of the hot sun.” 

Daniel scowled at Skaara. “It was a very mild heatstroke.”

“That anyone with good sense would not have had.” Skaara had an answer for everything.

 

*

Daniel was glad the hot days of summer were behind them. He had spent most of it in the cartouche room with either Skaara or Sha’re. They had proved admirable assistants, helping clean the walls they could actually reach; the ceiling in the room he had estimated to be fifty feet in height. And led to more than one theory of how they had carved the elaborate designs in the walls.

“But why so many panels, so many cartouches?” Daniel asked himself aloud. “These over here, clearly deal with Ra, the real Ra, not the fake one, of course. Okay, what do we know? Each cartouche is carved separately and there seems to be some kind of system of group…” His voice petered out. 

Suddenly, like a flash, it hit him. Then his butt hit the ground. “Oh. My. God. They’re…they’re addresses, stargate addresses.” Scrambling to his feet, he grabbed the torch he’d dropped. “Seven symbols in each grouping. This is huge, this is…” He sat again, slower this time. “Huge.” This was the find of a lifetime, something that no other archaeologist could ever claim. This was bigger than any of the tombs of Egypt, bigger than the Rosetta Stone.

And there was absolutely no one he could share it with, no one who would understand what an Earth-shattering discovery this was.

He almost wished he hadn’t found the room, that he didn’t know what he knew. Slowly, he extinguished the torches as he left the room.

His pace was slow as he plodded across the sands home.

 

*

He didn’t know why he didn’t think of it sooner. A telescope. It made perfect sense. So he’d bought a telescope and built a platform on top of the garage, a ladder that could be accessed from the deck. It didn’t need to be big, just big enough for a couple of chairs.

 

*

“If I’m right, Kasuf, it means that the stargate goes other places besides Earth.” 

Kasuf just stared in awe at the large room. “And this is bad?”

“It means that we need to make a decision. We either re-bury the gate or we guard it, night and day. We don’t know what’s out there, what else, who else might come through the gate. I don’t think we can take the risk.”

He nodded his head. “You are right, good son. We cannot take the risk. You have taught the boys well, they will guard the pyramid. It is good, yes?”

“I hope so, good father, I hope so.”

 

*

Someone was shuffling around in his neighbor’s yard. Jack ignored the voices, hidden up here in his little get-away on a beautifully crisp October night. Damn, he thought, that sounded suspiciously like someone climbing his ladder.

“Colonel Jack O’Neill?”

“Retired.” He didn’t even turn around.


End file.
